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But it will expose whether you have it. #
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[.]free In the age of AI, it has become easier than ever to forget one of the simplest rules of software engineering: just because code works, it doesn’t mean it is right.
According to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey: 66% of developers say they are spending more time fixing “almost-right” AI-generated code.
That points to the real danger: poorly engineered AI-generated code does not necessarily look wrong.
It may pass a quick test, solve the problem at hand, and even look clean enough during a quick review.
But without a thorough analysis, it can still introduce unnecessary complexity, hidden side effects, or one-off decisions that don’t fit the application’s patterns and boundaries.
This is why engineering judgment matters more than ever.
Working Code Is Not the Same as Good Engineering #
In software development, the cost of a bad engineering decision is usually paid when the code has to be changed, reused, tested, or extended.